Bart and James Cummings to dissolve partnership

Long-time client and friend of Bart Cummings, Dato Tan Chin Nam, believes that what problems have arisen in the Cummings camp can be rectified after news broke that the training partnership of Bart and James Cummings will be dissolved at the end of the year after only five months.

Bart Cummings,above, is set to dissolve his training partnership with grandson James. Photo by Taron Clarke.

“This has all become recent news to Dato. Dato feels the damage is not irreversible and it has become a mountain out of a molehill. Dato feels the family will sort out their differences and should be left to do so. He states that blood is thicker than water,” Duncan Ramage, General Manager and Racing Manager for Dato Tan Chin Nam wrote on the Think Big Stud website.

Cups King Bart Cummings and grandson James joined forces at the beginning of this current racing season on August 1 with the notion that James would eventually take over the legendary racing empire.

But the ‘Partnership for Success’ is set to be no more with reports that Bart will set up a stable at Hawkesbury, not far from Princes Farm where he spends a lot of his time.

Bart Cummings has held a trainer’s licence for sixty years and currently trains his team with James out of his famous Leilani Lodge at Randwick while the Melbourne arm of the operation is setting up stables at Flemington following the sale of Saintly Lodge.

Bart is a legend of Australian racing, training twelve Melbourne Cup winners among his two hundred and sixty-six Group 1 winners.

The partnership has trained fourteen winners together and narrowly missed out on having a runner in this year’s Group 1 $6m Emirates Melbourne Cup (3200m) at Flemington on November 5 when the rejuvenated Precedence just missed out gaining a start.

Even though Precedence won the Group 2 $250,000 Drake International Cup (2500m) at Moonee Valley on October 26 in the lead up to the Melbourne Cup, it was not enough to gain a spot in the ‘Race That Stops The Nation’.

The Bart and James Cummings name was quickly in the winner’s stall after teaming up together in August with Eurozone winning the Listed $100,000 The Rosebud (1200m) at Randwick on August 10 and the three year old followed that up with a win in the Group 2 $250,000 Stan Fox Stakes (1500m) at Rosehill on September 28.

Author: Mark Mazzaglia

Mark is a passionate journalist with a life-time involvement in the racing industry. He spent many years as an analyst and form expert at the Courier Mail and also has hands-on experience working with some of Queensland’s top trainers.